Yeah, they knew. In fact, JW kept getting his driver's license suspended over and over again for failure to pay child support to DCF for any of them (all public record on the Sarasota County Clerks Office website). There's a pic of him all smiles on his FB getting into a car shortly after he regained his license after one of the suspensions - with family members (who shall remain nameless) posting their congratulations to him - and then another all smiles next to a car a family member (who shall also remain nameless) bought for him, again with congrats all around. Not only did his family know, they kept helping him out all the while he was having and then losing all those kids.
I'm so glad this is all coming out now in mainstream media so everyone who is feeling so sorry for the families is finally starting to get the whole story about exactly what and who contributed to the circumstances that allowed Chance and Duane to remain in the situations that killed them. I've been sitting on my hands for over a week now going crazy being unable to discuss this debacle because it hadn't all begun to hit MS media yet (I was edited a few times though - thank you Mods for being understanding and merely editing me when I got out of line rather than giving me a TO; I appreciate it).
Anyway, yeah, the families knew about all those removed children and so did many of us here. Once both of these are back in FL it's going to get ugly up in here because FL WILL release all this info and people are going to be outraged, no doubt about it. And not only at the two being formally charged.
As always, IMO.